Key People

Jim Thornton - Jim is Treasurer and Leader, simply because a registered political party has to have 'officers' to be legal. Jim represented Hertford Castle Ward on East Herts Council from May 1999 to 2007 and was amazed how difficult it was under the Party system to make things happen. As Hertford Area Party Chair, he had championed the provision of a skatepark, affordable housing for teachers, a charitable trust for East Herts and some sort of cinema, but once elected, he and other Hertford Councillors found themselves battling against the Party. Having tried to work on the 'inside' he now thinks the only hope for local democracy is local Councils made up of concerned residents, not Party apparatchiks. Jim, a Chartered Engineer, is a Governor at two local schools, and supports his family by managing property.

Viv Thornton - Nominating Officer; Viv is a specialist in palliative care, the care of the dying, doing occasional work at St Clare's Hospice, and has a particular interest in elderly people and their

welfare. She currently helps run a Lunch Club for the elderly in the Sele Farm Community Centre, and is a Governor at St Andrews JMI School. At the last District Council elections she did better than her husband did, and like most people who go into politics, believes she can make the world a better place, but cannot believe how difficult it is to get anything done. There has to be a better way.